Why Would the Rams Give Up A Home Game?

You hear about it in college sports all the time. The reason the power house conference schools (Texas A&M, LSU, Ohio State, Stanford) schedule schools from the FCS is for an additional home game. But why, you ask? Well, these schools often pay the FCS teams in the neighborhood of $125,000-$400,000 to come play at their FBS stadium. Teams wouldn't do that unless they thought there were economic rents to be captured.

FBS teams are saying, we can pay this FCS school $250,000 to come play us at home, where we'll sell at least 40,000 tickets at $20-$60 each, concession stands sales, parking passes, and suites. FBS schools don't want to give up home games because it means it will cost them money.

But what about in the NFL, is the same thing true? Check out this article by Yahoo! Sports:
Rams to Play NFL games in London for 3 years
So why would a professional sports team give up a home game for 3 years to play overseas? The same reason FCS teams give up a home game to go play FBS schools for a paycheck. It's all about the money.

It's no surprise that St. Louis ranks 31st (out of 32) in league attendance this past year, drawing an average of roughly 56,000 fans, which fills only about 85% of the Edward Jones Dome. The 5 games that have been played in London have drawn roughly 82,000 fans, and that's regardless of the teams playing, since they change each year. The fact is, more NFL fans in London would rather show up and watch ANY two teams play then the fans in St. Louis who actually have a home team.

While the details are not clear of the financial payout for the Rams for going over to London instead of hosting a home game, you can bet that a 3 year deal to be the home team means they're making more money playing a home game in Europe than they do playing a home game in St. Louis. At the end of the day, sports are still a business, and the dollar still matters more.

Does Defense Win Championships?

A great post from the guys over at Freakonomics:

http://www.freakonomics.com/2012/01/20/does-defense-really-win-championships/

The answer may surprise you!

Sports Economics

What a growing field! The field has emerged as a fast growing discipline, and has a unique group of followers who love to answer questions related to human's favorite pastime, sports. While very few universities offer a degree in sports economics, most offer at least a class, where common theories related to economics are applied to the sports world.

Is there an advantage to playing at home?

Are referees biased toward foreign players

What factors influence salaries


These questions and more are explored in the world of sports economics. So what's the purpose of this blog? It's purpose is to bring you both academic and real-world reporting of sports economics. If an academic paper pops up that isn't heavy in econometrics, we'll pass it along. If a news article discusses economic related issues in an article about sports, it'll be posted here.

Feel free to comment and recommend articles as you find them. Together, we'll grow a large collection of sports related papers. If you have questions about graduate degrees in sports economics, we'll try to help pass along important information!

Cheers!